A ‘lite’ review of an attempt to improve motif screening of genomes using additional data. Considering local minima of histone acetylation in a context of high histone acetylation may be one way forward. A number of years ago at a biotechnology sector after-talk drinks I found myself trying to convince a CEO that often … Read More

Platypuses[1] are one of Australia’s oddest creatures. They’re furry, mainly nocturnal aquatic creatures that swim with their eyes shut paddling with their webbed front feet and steering (or braking) with their rear feet. Their homes are burrows in the river banks. While not endangered, water pollution is an issue for their survival.[2] … Read More

We often think about evolution as a competition, but it's not always clear who the competitors are. While popular accounts of evolution often talk about species competing for survival, Darwin saw evolutionary change as the result of individual's strugg... Read More

Autism is probably one of the best known neurological disorders, in part due to promotion in Hollywood movies such as Rain Man. It is described in the On-line Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database as being ‘characterized by a triad of limited or absent verbal communication, a lack of reciprocal social interaction or responsiveness, and restricted, … Read More

I know, a couple of week it was multiple exclamation points, then a reference to lyrics from a band anyone who is remotely cool is trying to forget they ever liked and this week it's all caps all the way. Hopefully, by the end of this post you'll agree... Read More

A chain of proteins hold bacterial DNA in a compacted spiral. You and I are eukaryotes. Our cells have nuclei, repositories that contain our DNA and the proteins that read them to produce an RNA copy of them. [caption id="attachment_3694" align="alignleft" width="300"] HeLa cells* stained for DNA (Source: Wikimedia Commons.)[/caption] In earlier … Read More

The chicken or egg blog family is on holiday in Germany during August, so I probably won’t have a chance to write any new posts. Â To keep you all entertained, I’ll be re-posting some of my earlier (pre-Sciblogs) articles. Â This one is the very first post I wrote for this blog, from March 2009. Research [...] … Read More

A recent paper argues for the need to preserve the gut microbes found in ancient rural populations. We talk about preserving rare species, sometimes arguing that they might have medicinal value. Some species produce different types of venom, that when applied properly can have medicinal uses. Certain … Read More

DNA methylation controls the binding of proteins that control the 3-D structure of genes. This is a lightly edited version of an article I wrote as a guest on Alison’s blog over a year ago, looking back a couple of years to show something of what epigenetics was bringing to genome biology. The … Read More

I’d like to bring to wider attention an article series, The Roots of Bioinformatics. The roots of prairie plants (Source: Wikimedia Commons.) Hold up. Before experimental biologists run away, you’re some of the people I’d like this to reach! At a recent bioinformatics meeting I attended, a senior experimental biologist from overseas commented to … Read More

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